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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:41 am
Time: 11:41 am
Results for traffic fines
3 results foundAuthor: Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Title: Not Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California Summary: A recent Department of Justice report found that courts and law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri, are systematically and purposefully taking money from the pockets of poor people - disproportionately from black people - to put into court coffers. The context may be different in California, but many of the practices are chillingly similar. As a result, over four million Californians do not have valid driver's licenses because they cannot afford to pay traffic fines and fees. These suspensions make it harder for people to get and keep jobs, further impeding their ability to pay their debt. They harm credit ratings. They raise public safety concerns. Ultimately they keep people in long cycles of poverty that are difficult, if not impossible to overcome. This report highlights the growing trend of license suspensions, how the problem happens, the impact on families and communities, and what can and should be done about it. Details: San Francisco: The Committee, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 15, 2015 at: http://www.lccr.com/wp-content/uploads/Not-Just-a-Ferguson-Problem-How-Traffic-Courts-Drive-Inequality-in-California-4.9.15.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.lccr.com/wp-content/uploads/Not-Just-a-Ferguson-Problem-How-Traffic-Courts-Drive-Inequality-in-California-4.9.15.pdf Shelf Number: 135221 Keywords: Racial BiasRacial DisparitiesTraffic Fines |
Author: Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Title: Paying More for Being Poor: Bias and Disparity in California's Traffic Court System Summary: California's traffic fines and fees are some of the highest in the country, and new data shows that current California policies disproportionately impact people of color. This report looks at the most recent information available on California's current traffic court system, evaluates its impact on communities of color, examines the statewide fiscal impacts of these policies and practices, and offers some recommendations for how California could improve its traffic court system to become a national model for change. Californians who cannot afford to pay a fine for a traffic citation face harsher consequences than those who can: some Californians mail in a payment, while those who cannot pay experience license suspension, arrest, jail, wage garnishment, towing of their vehicles, and job loss - for the same minor offenses. In 2015, the California Department of Motor Vehicles reported that over 4 million driver licenses had been suspended in recent years for failure to pay or appear on a citation - affecting about one in six California drivers. In April 2017, a DMV point-in-time count showed that 588,939 Californians had lost their licenses because they could not pay or appear in court. To address this significant toll on Californians, Governor Jerry Brown signed an 18-month California Traffic Tickets / Infractions Amnesty Program that reduced fines on pre-2013 traffic tickets by 80% for indigent applicants and allowed people to get on payment plans to get their licenses back. The program allowed nearly 200,000 people to regain their driver licenses. That program ended in April 2017. California now faces the question of what to do next. With the expiration of the amnesty program, there is no longer a pathway by which people who cannot afford to pay fines may pursue license reinstatement. Californians lose the ability to drive legally as a punishment for being unable to pay a fine without any statewide system to make the punishment fit a person's ability to pay or to return a license if the person can make small payments. California has the opportunity to create permanent reforms to this inequitable system. In this report, we present data about the scope of the problem with license suspensions and traffic courts in California and offer some recommendations for policy solutions. We focused our research in the nine Bay Area counties and created fiscal analyses for statewide policy. Findings of note include: California traffic fines and fees are some of highest in country. Although the base fines for California Vehicle Code violations may be lower or comparable to many other states', the add-on fees - and particularly the $300 late penalty - make California one of the states with the steepest fines. 78% of Californians need a driver license to work or to get to work, which means California's current policy of suspending licenses for non-payment is putting at risk the ability of many California families to support themselves. In Bay Area counties, license suspension for failure to pay or appear is exacerbating the racial bias already present in traffic stops. As data show, people of color are more likely to be subjected to traffic stops. Once stopped, people of color are also more likely to be booked on arrests related to failure to appear or failure to pay. The available county-level data shows that African-American people in particular are four to sixteen times more likely to be booked on arrests related to failure to pay an infraction ticket. Even though traffic court is the most common point of contact with the court system - 60% of all court filings statewide are traffic or infraction citations - it is very difficult for someone who cannot afford to pay the full amount to resolve a ticket. None of the nine Bay Area counties surveyed had information about alternative options for low-income people on their websites, available by phone, or in person at the court clerk's office. Details: San Francisco: The Committee, 2017. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 5, 2017 at: https://www.lccr.com/wp-content/uploads/LCCR-Report-Paying-More-for-Being-Poor-May-2017.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.lccr.com/wp-content/uploads/LCCR-Report-Paying-More-for-Being-Poor-May-2017.pdf Shelf Number: 145317 Keywords: BiasFines and FeesPovertyRacial DiscriminationTraffic Fines |
Author: Salas, Mario Title: Driven by Dollars: a State-by-State Analysis of Driver's License Suspension Laws for Failure to Pay Court Debt Summary: Across the country, millions of people have lost their licenses simply because they are too poor to pay, effectively depriving them of reliable, lawful transportation necessary to get to and from work, take children to school, keep medical appointments, care for ill or disabled family members, or, paradoxically, to meet their financial obligations to the courts. State laws suspending or revoking driver's licenses to punish failure to pay court costs and fines are ubiquitous, despite the growing consensus that this kind of policy is unfair and counterproductive. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia use driver's license suspension to coerce payment of government debts arising out of traffic or criminal convictions. Most state statutes contain no safeguards to distinguish between people who intentionally refuse to pay and those who default due to poverty, punishing both groups equally harshly as if they were equally blameworthy. License-for-payment systems punish people-not for any crime or traffic violation, but for unpaid debts. Typically, when a state court finds a person guilty of a crime or traffic violation, it orders the person to pay a fine or other penalty along with other administrative court costs and fees. If the person does not pay on time, the court or motor vehicle agency can-and in some states, must-punish the person by suspending his or her driver's license until the person pays in full or makes other payment arrangements with the court. By cutting people off from jobs, license-for-payment systems create a self-defeating vicious cycle. A state suspends the license even though a person cannot afford to pay, which then makes the person less likely to pay once he or she cannot drive legally to work. The person now faces an unenviable choice: drive illegally and risk further punishment (including incarceration in some states), or stay home and forgo the needs of his or her family. In this way, license-for-payment systems create conditions akin to modern-day debtor's prisons. Despite their widespread use, license-for-payment systems are increasingly drawing critical scrutiny from motor vehicle safety professionals, anti-poverty and civil rights advocates, and policymakers. New state-based advocacy campaigns across the country have produced reforms by way of the courts, legislatures, and executive agencies. To provide national context for these efforts, we analyzed license-for-payment systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to generate conclusions about the prevalence and uses of license-for-payment. Our key findings include: - 43 states (and D.C.) suspend driver's licenses because of unpaid court debt;6 - Only four states require an ability-to-pay or "willfulness" determination before a license can be suspended for nonpayment; - 19 states-almost 40% of the nation-have laws imposing mandatory suspension upon nonpayment of court debt; and, - Virtually all states that suspend for unpaid court debt do so indefinitely, with rules that prevent reinstatement until payment is satisfied. All over the country, people are struggling to earn a livelihood and meet the needs of their families while their licenses remain indefinitely suspended because of court debt they cannot pay. At a time of historic income and wealth inequality, states should urgently reexamine whether the policy's immense costs to individuals, communities, and states overwhelm its benefits. At a minimum, license-for-payment states should review their policies to ensure their systems provide due process, with adequate safeguards in place to make certain no person is punished because of poverty. Details: Charlottesville, VA: Legal Aid Justice Center, 2017. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 8, 2018 at: https://www.justice4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Driven-by-Dollars.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.justice4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Driven-by-Dollars.pdf Shelf Number: 151445 Keywords: Court DebtDebtors PrisonDrivers License SuspensionPayment of FinesTraffic FinesTraffic Infractions |